Walt and I began relatively tame. We were just boxing at this early stage it seemed, just testing each other to see how far the other would go. We eventually escalated the situation with kicks as well, still taking it pretty tame. From what I could tell we were going pretty easy on each other. His impacts didn't feel major to me or anything like that, and I was certainly not hitting hard myself. I was still a bit nervous about this whole part of the training.

After what only felt like 30 minutes our instructor called everyone to a halt. She had us reflect on our own performance and the performance of our sparring partner.

Knowing how quiet Walt was, I went ahead and spoke up.

"I feel like our forms are fine but, much as I do not wish to, I think we should step up the intensity, you know? We're in the top 10 Walt, I don't want to fall behind or anything. What about you?" Trying a diplomatic approach, I thought I'd see if that prompted him to have a conversation.

Both his eyebrows shot up as I finished my thought. He stared for a moment.... and then just nodded and added " You are right, our knowledge of the moves certainly seem to be sufficient. Very well, we should put our all into this."

Which was more in one reply than I'd gotten out of all week. So that was good at least. I'm glad he also agreed. On retrospection I decided that taking it easy was not the way for me to move forward in this world. Since the knight had offhandedly mentioned monsters I should've realized sooner that if I was going to be fighting them, they would not give me the chance to get use to them and would likely aim for my life. Since I was rather interested in that aspect of this world... I really did need some serious training.

After 15 minutes or so the instructor released us to spar again.

Walt and I took up positions in the circle and waited for the signal. Eager to make sure Walt took this seriously, I lunged forward as soon as the instructor gave the go ahead and shot out a hook as hard as I could. I figured this would be the quickest way to get Walt to respond, just in case he was thinking of still taking it easy.

He quickly shot up his arm to block and I was already anticipating him following up with a kick or a punch of his own and was watching him closely. I was caught by complete surprise however as when he blocked he literally skidded on his feet and the circle of dirt a good foot away. That was something I had only seen in animes or superhero movies and did not think it could happen in real life.

Oh. But hey..... new world. With mana to enhance the body. Right.

I had to shake myself out of my thoughts quick though, as even though Walt was surprised himself, he shook it off faster than I was processing and came back in with a barrage of attacks. I frantically scrambled for a bit but then fell into a groove with him. Walt was focusing on speed. I'm not sure if he was looking for an opening before going hard or if this was just his preferred method of fighting, but it was all I could do to dodge or deflect everything he threw at me. It was a really strange time for me. I know we had just been through training for over a month on this kind of stuff, but honestly my mind was not processing what he was doing as fast as my body was reacting.

Which is great in the sense that I wasn't getting hit, but as soon as I was thinking that I should respond this way to that kick he was doing, he was already following up with another attack and then I needed to respond to that one. It was mentally exhausting, but with my body for some reason able to keep up even though my head wasn't there was never a serious exchange of power. Being on the backburner the whole match was an entirely new feeling for me. It kind of felt like one of those souls games where I had just jumped in and only knew how to dodge and was just dodging as fast as possible while trying to figure out whatever the pattern on the enemy was.

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Eventually I tried just trusting my body and using my head to watch his face instead to see if it would give anything away I could use. He was entirely zeroed in on me it seems, not having the same issue I was facing, but since he was not landing any solid hits on me like I did in the initiation I felt like it should be frustrating him even if he was just not showing it.

After what seemed like an eternity I finally noticed some sweat start to break out on his head. I was just thinking that if he was gonna tired out maybe I could finally get something in edgewise, when the instructor called another halt. I thought we wouldn't have been able to hear her this time as we were so focused but it seems she had wandered over during our spar and was just outside our designated ring. We broke apart and I while felt like I had just run some sprints from back in the old world, Walt was another story altogether. He was the full on exhaustion status, bent over and panting like he was about to die.

I just kind of tilted my head while looking at him. I did not realize he was giving his all that hard. He had definitely taken the spirit of going all out seriously.

Curiously I noticed our instructor tilting her head too, but she was looking at me instead of Walt. Suddenly she raised her hand and an abbot approached and walked to Walt and began the healing process on him. I was very confused but finally noticed, when the lightshow from healing started, that his forearm that he blocked my initial hit with was a deep red. Also, as the healing went on his breathing grew more and more calm. Did that stuff even help with physical exhaustion? That too seemed useful! I hoped we would all learn something like this eventually.

After the abbot finished with Walt, he made his was over to me as well. I looked a bit confused but when he laid his hands on my arm I noticed it had a tiny bit of red on it too. The healer finished on me a lot quicker than Walt, most likely because I hadn't let Walt get a hit in on me and then stepped out and walked back towards the tree in the center. Huh, I hadn't even noticed them earlier when we first came in.

At this the knight finally stopped looking at me and looked around at the rest of the class, thank goodness. I felt like she was peering into my soul or something.

"Listen up, never forget what you are here training for. When you make it as a fully tiered knight you will be guarding this domain from all manners of incursions, be it beast or man. Having the conviction to give it your all is actually what separates a dead knight from an alive one. Normally we don't need this reminder until the third week, but Walter and William here have already decided to show us their mettle." the instructor was in the midst of her speech, but I had to stare down at the floor at this point.

I was enjoying it to begin with as she elaborated on why I was even here at the order, but when she called attention to us I was just embarrassed. Walt stood a little taller though. I'm not sure if he enjoyed the attention or just wanted to be seen in a more prestigious role here, but I realized I probably needed to get to his level of courage and not care if I was the center of attention.

Just not today.

"From this point on I will need all of you to also show your conviction and put your everything into this training. Remember we have the abbots here to help you recover from any injury you may sustain. You will step up to this challenge. Now, reflect on your match like before during this respite." She wrapped up her speech without drawing anymore attention to us, of which I was quite grateful, even if it wasn't done on my behalf.

As everyone began talking with their sparring partners I glanced around looking for Bea or Tom. Finally giving up since I wasn't able to find them, I focused back on Walter, only to realize the knight was talking to him in very hushed tones. Figuring she had some words of advice for us since she was taking such an interest, I just waited off to the side patiently. When she finished with Walt however, she just stood up straight, nodded my way then blurred and disappeared.

I looked around bewildered only to find her at the tree speaking with the abbot, who then turn and disappeared out of the room.

Confused I just walked over to Walt and commended him on the match.

Thinking to try the honeyed approach again to get him talking, I began "I don't know how you chained your alternating attacks like that so smoothly, but it was well done. I feel like I was barely keeping up, and even then by sheer fluke. I had no idea you could move like that! Well done!"

He looked askance at the remark before finally replying "Thank you. You're right though in your observation that it was not enough to really catch you though. Your first blow however caught me quite off guard with the power. It seems we each have our strengths to play into.

I was nodding along hoping I could get him to speak a bit more, but he actually sat down and appeared to be meditating instead.

The nerve of this guy!